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Oakland Raiders’ Justin Tuck: “I Am Still Surprised I’m not a New York Giant”

June 30th, 2014 at 3:00 PM By Dan Benton

It's been nearly four months since Justin Tuck signed with the Oakland Raiders, but despite going through the offseason workout program with his new team, the veteran defensive end is still adjusting to his new surroundings. And after nine seasons as a member of the New York Giants, being allowed to walk is still a difficult pill for him to swallow.

While attending the Newark Mentoring Movement golf outing at Liberty National, Tuck admitted that he remains surprised things didn't workout between he and the Giants, but adds there are no hard feelings.

"I am still surprised I'm not a New York Giant," Tuck told The Star-Ledger. "I did everything I was supposed to do, the right way. It wasn't meant to be. You don't hold any grudges, you're not mad at anyone. Hey, God has put you in a new place. It's kind of a breath of fresh air to start somewhere new.

"You reminisce the good times and the bad ones you learned from and you try and take that into the next chapter."

Perhaps more shocking than his departure from the Giants has been the Giant fans, Tuck says. Not necessarily the ones who have verbally assaulted him via Twitter, calling him a traitor, but rather the supremely loyal ones who have told him the team made a tremendous mistake in letting him walk.

"The only thing weird is when you see Giants fans who have a tendency to tell you how stupid [the team] is," Tuck added. "Those are their words, not mine. But yeah, it was weird. You spend nine years in one place. You have a lot of success there and a lot of great friends. So yeah, it's going to be weird but I understand the business side of things and you need to move forward."

Hopefully one day both sides can move on from this somewhat sour separation and Tuck can retire a member of the New YorkFootball Giants — even if it's only on a one-day contract.

6 Responses to “Oakland Raiders’ Justin Tuck: “I Am Still Surprised I’m not a New York Giant””

Hey, I love Tuck. He is a terrific guy and gave us plenty of good years and contributed to two championships. But quite frankly, letting him walk was an absolute no-brainer. I think the decisions about whom NOT to retain made by the brain trust were dead on. I had residual love for Nicks, but given what we’ve learned he just had to go. He may have an excellent year with the Colts and resurrect his career, but it wasn’t going to happen with the Giants. The relationship was lousy and you can’t make that just go away.

If Williams was getting all the snaps at WILL that really could be a good thing. The kid has plenty of talent. He just needed to gain some strength so he wasn’t a huge liability against the run and start to actually understand his assignments and start reacting rather than thinking out there. I assume he has managed both or Fewell would have probably started the rock-solid Paysinger instead.

And Kennard isn’t the only guy who could gain immensely from what we have to hope is a temporary setback for Beason. This kid Fox may get a chance to impress. Apparently the coaches liked him, but without pads it’s hard to really assess linebackers to any worthwhile degree.

Could Kennard beat out Paysinger at SAM? Entirely possible because of his size advantage and ability to rush the quarterback. I still, though, expect McClain to be starting at SAM, Beason in the middle, and hopefully Williams at WILL, with Paysinger behind Williams, Kennard behind McClain, and Fox pushing hard to demote Herzlich. But don’t sleep on Berhe. If they have too many safeties available (less likely with Hill gone) they’ll have to find room for that kid, and he might become a WILL-type who could push Herzlich off the roster.

Is everyone watching the World Cup? Or have I missed two weeks of scintillating commentary and everyone has said all they had to say? Pretty dead around here.

I was hoping to get some hints as to who looked good in OTAs and what looks promising. I guess the good news is that so far there appear to be no major injuries and that the team has pretty good depth at most positions. I guess the situation in the trenches cannot be analyzed much until they put the pads on, but I’m really not all that worried about the defensive line and the offensive line, with the huge exception of left tackle.

The tight ends, of course, remain a riddle wrapped in an enigma. But I suspect we can win with what we have there. The one critical area where I’m afraid we don’t have enough quality depth is at wide receiver. We’re depending an awful lot on a rookie and a guy who looked good toward the end of last season but hasn’t a long enough resume to inspire confidence yet. We need Cruz and Randle to stay healthy all season.